Monday I spent the morning at grocery stores buying different types of miniature vegetables in hopes of finding several tasty wholesome treats to feed Threio through the cage bars to gain his trust.

The rest of the morning was dedicated to cleaning his cage area, adding another natural perch and re-arranging some toys to encourage play within his cage.

I introduced Threio to music with an old Tina Turner concert DVD, he seems to like music, which is good for the days when I need to be away for an extended spell. During the playing of music he started perching on one leg and singing which scared me to death.

I initially thought he had hurt himself in the cage, later I would find out with the help of a fellow Indianringneck.com member that this practice is pretty common in larger parrot breeds. None of my Parrotlets or Cockatiels showed this type of behavior in the past. You learn something new everyday.

It was explained to me that many of the larger parrot breeds will often take naps and sleep with one leg snuggled into their chest feathers while kept as pets and especially in the wild. This also is a sign that the parrot is happy and content, which I found to be most reassuring.

The veggie sampling was not a raving success, he does like carrots but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in limes and the small corn kernels that look like tiny corn on the cob delights. Totally ignores snow peas and got a little frazzled by my menu display after ten minutes. I will try them again tomorrow in his green water dish. He seems to like to test stuff in there first, then eat out of his food tray.

I got a call on the “squawk box” from my sister yesterday that my niece was laughing historically about the fact that Threio said the word AS#! Luckily my niece is old enough to know and use this type of language outside my sister’s presence, but, this was a wake up call. After reflection its pretty clear to me that I need to check the Rating of this page!

Children as well as adults love, own and care for Parrots, and I would hate for a youngster to land on this page and get assaulted by my sometimes sarcastic and crude humor.

Tomorrow, I am going to create a kid friendly site consisting of only the Threio Diary portion of this Blog.

Sunday was pretty easy day for us; he made several more calls and did some singing during the day. His voice is quite pleasant and he sung a nice little melody for his first song. I am trying to figure out if this is a natural tune or is he mimicking something he heard on the television (BPM).

He has pretty much explored his entire cage now, and I think I am going to add two strategically placed branch perches today to his cage if he ventures out. The store bought branches are better for his feet to naturally exercise the different parts of his toes do the variety of widths on a real branch.

I had the top-side door open and the large front door open but he didn’t seem interested in going out. Most parrot books say this is natural for baby companion birds to stay in the safety of their cages initially.

Tomorrow I will begin trying to feed him treats through the cage bars to get him more comfortable with me. Generally the initial bonding phase takes approximately two weeks, then we can begin “Step-Up” command training once he is no longer terrorized by the site of my hands.

Also this week I will experiment with miniature vegetables and slices of fruit to ascertain what to add to his diet other than apples, sesame seeds and natural peanuts. Seeing him pull the shell off to get the peanuts inside is a delight to watch.

Things I am looking for in the coming week:

• Acceptance of another fruit or vegetable
• More calls and singing
• Explore and come out the cage to perch on the top
• Play a little more with his toys in the cage

Photo: Extinct DODO Bird

News: Dodo Skeleton Found on Island, May Yield Extinct Bird’s DNA

I am awaken at 9:30am by a call from Threio, its not as loud as I had expected, honestly he’s not louder than my cell phone alarm. I didn’t sleep well last night anyway thinking about him being cramped in a cage that is too small. My initial thought is he should be easy to ignore when he has potential temper tantrums as compared to the squeaky voice of a Parrotlet that I have been accustomed to dealing with in the last year.

I take out the parrot mix and water trays from last night and freshen them up to give him an idea of what our morning routine will be to begin each day. I open the cage and he immediately comes to the top and then it dawns on me that today is Independence Day (USA), a national holiday and the pet stores are closed!

I will not be able to get his new cage today! Darn it!

After a few minutes he perches on the top of the cage with a large rope toy and a strip of millet. After several minutes doing household chores in his view, I casually walk towards the cage and he immediately tries to fly away and slowly descends to the floor due to his wings being clipped.

Again, I try the hand to set-up method, but he is too scared, I yield to the fact that this will be our first full day together, so I take the same approach from last night and let him just walk around and explore.

After that I showed him the rest of the morning rituals and he follows me around on the floor to the bathroom and climbs a curio as I brush my teeth and do the normal stuff we do in the bathroom.

I put him back into the cage with the help of the cage top again and take a shower. I re-open the cage and he goes back to perching at the top with the rope toy and eats some of the millet.

All day when I get up from my desk he raises up, when I sit back down, he sits at the top of the cage. He is still pretty nervous and after about six hours I need to see him eat something more than just millet.

I cut an apple into quarter slices and place one in between him, the rope toy and millet. After a few minutes he starts eating the apple contently and I feel much better at this point.

At dinnertime, I have a flashback to the breeder cage set-up, so I get a big Tupperware dish and place it full of seed mix, a few crackers and a fresh apple slice. After a few minutes he is eating everything in the dish.

The only hurdle left for tomorrow is to see him drink some water.

This morning I am up early when Threio makes his morning call and I take his night cover off, reinforce his name and morning greeting to start the day.

I make a small but critical change to the morning ritual, I add a large green cup to the top of his cage and add water. After an hour he has already eaten and taken a few sips of water.

Next, I purposely spook him off the top of the cage so he can get some exercise, this time he jumps to my desk and then onto the windowsill. He is in bird heaven now, he gets right up into the window and makes a few calls to passing birds.

He looks so happy there, but after an hour his natural instincts take over and gets him into trouble with me. He tried to climb the window screen to the top!

–THREIO, NO, YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET TRAPPED BETWEEN THE GLASS AND THE SCREEN–

I am the master of the wood spoon, and after a bit of screaming by Threio we come to a compromise that the window ledge is good, climbing the screen is bad. He’s pretty smart, this training only lasted about ten minutes but more importantly I want him to have access to the window daily.

Feeling good that all of his needs are met and my concerns have been resolved, I take a look on the Internet to get an idea of the styles and prices of larger parrot cages before I venture out to the store. I have an idea of the one I want, now its just a matter of finding the store that will have this cage on sale without burning up the savings on gas ($4.07). SIGH!

After getting to the expressway entrance I re-think my savings plan and just head to the closest Petsmart so I can get back quickly just in case he misses me more than I think. I have left him alone before but this is a much longer trip, so I have a little anxiety setting in as I leave the store.

I get his new “throne” setup and coax him to climb out of the old cage and onto his new cage. Threio found his water cup and slotted food bowl in less than three hours. He spent the rest of the night exploring his new cage.

He appears to be much more relaxed now with the security of the large cage, he’s perching and rubbing his beak all over the place. The only downer is he seems to just like the rope toy at the top of the cage.

However, I do get to see him hang upside down playing with the rope, so I guess its all good!

A two-hour trip to Pottsville, Pennsylvania to pick up Threio, after seeing him for the first time I get a rush of excitement and a quick reality check at this baby’s overall size. I was thinking he would be the size of a Parrotlet and would grow to his normal size of 16” inches in a month or two.

I realize that the three vacant cages I have are not the appropriate size to accommodate my new baby’s tail, so I make a mental note that I am going to need a new cage immediately.

I intently listen to an informative and impressive pet care briefing from the breeder and eagerly pay her for my new companion. We get back to my home about an hour before dark, I figure opening the box near the cage door opening would be less stressful for me new friend and as usual it goes awry, a slide, bounce, poor flight with clip wings and onto the floor my buddy goes.

I figure instead of going through the usual chase behind this and that and corralling, I would let him just walk around for a while a check out his new digs.

After about fifteen minutes I make several attempts with the step up, and eventually after to resort to the cage top to get him onto the cage. I let him just sit up there for the rest of the night until bedtime.

I am happy, but the cage issue is in the forefront of my mind ensuring that tonight I will toss and turn until light appears in my bedroom window in the morning.

I get on the morning express and hang out as HE walks around moving stuff all over the place.  I get a chance to talk to grandmom for a few minutes on the squak box, then we head to the back of the Big Box, and enter the weird room with waterfalls. Great, I’m a bit dusty and could use a splash! 

I have been in this crazy room before, when he puts white foam all over his face and scrapes what appears to be fur off his face.  I guess it’s like when I trim my beak, who knows and who cares?

The trip was wonderful as he got the waterfalls working and I got to take a quick dip and head to the top to get a better view of this crazy place. 

All of a sudden he gets under the water fall and grabs this white leaf and then I notice…. OH….OH…..He’s plucked out all his feathers!  Boy, he needs psychiatric help he’s gone KOO+KOO!  I will keep you posted, I may need you to join in on a intervention!

I wake up this morning and he gets my corn flakes ready and I get a fruit cup of angos and oranges. Excellent, I will get to that seed mix later, probably when he goes out the box. Where, Who Knows?

Anyway, he really pissed me off this afternoon. First, he tricks me, he puts a huge piece of my toast in this green jar, and he knows I am not the cleanliness eater, but, what do you homosapians expect I got no teeth like you skin and bones buffoons.

Well, I guess I am about half the way done, and he comes over to the cage talking about he wants to empty the crumbs. Well hold on I’m not done yet! He says he just wants the crumbs, and I can keep the big piece.  Wait a minute something is going on here, so, I say what for?

Threio: I am making stuffing, I just want the crumbs.
Me: Stuffing What? …..(Come near this cage and I will grab your lip and hang on for life)

Threio:  I am making chicken for dinner tomorrow.
Me: Your Disgusting!
(Cooking one of my cousins, I will get a good chomp on your ear later)

I not sharing space with him any more, he’s too loud and cynical for my taste.  Sorry, I had to throw him outta here, this is my space!

Go talk to Threio over there:

http://www.threio.com